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The Audio Secrets of BioShock and God Hand

The next aesthetics tool was weapons, and the example given was the security bots. These had motor sounds that dynamically pitch-blended based on velocity (you might know this as "they sounded different when they changed speeds"); blade sounds for their rotor blades; firing sounds; shell casing sounds; collision sounds; damage state sounds; and idle, acquired target, and killed target voiceovers. The overall effect was indicative of much of BioShock's design: "The juxtaposition of surreal and real elements.

Machines were next up, with a design focus on penny-arcade machine sound effects. Other than noting the re-recording of some old public domain calliope songs, such as "Entrance of the Gladiators" and "Over the Waves," Balthrop noted that BioShock creative director Ken Levine would constantly send recommendations of penny-arcade machines to check out for sounds and inspiration. In short, Balthrop advises, spend some time on research.

The UI sounds turned out to be one of the presentation's most interesting topics. The main menu UI is simply piano notes. It's actually eight notes selected at random from the F Phrygian mode, in the key of D flat. This was a conscious decision to go with modal harmony, which was popularized with the jazz era. It was "a really subtle way to just, in any system we could, try to creatively cater to the overall direction of BioShock."

The last real interesting note in the session concerned the heavy use of random ambience noises, a whole selection of sounds that would simply play at random if too much time went by with no sound. That's how you end up with a deserted city that still manages to sound haunted.

The presentation by Masafumi Takada was just as interesting, but we will have to preface this by noting that it was nowhere near as technical. Mr. Takada spent a great deal of time showing us clips of his audio to illustrate points, pausing to let us contemplate a point, and ended up ending after half an hour. Let's call it the more art-focused of the two audio sessions.

When Takada went to Osaka to work with Shinji Mikami, whose legacy includes the Resident Evil games, it was to do music for Clover Studio's God Hand. Takada worked on the project under the thesis "What would Mr. Mikami be if he was a piece of music?" He decided to use Mikami as a "filter" for the music of God Hand, since Mikami was the "father" of the project.

In God Hand explicitly, Takada's goal was to create the repetition of certain "motif phrases." Takada described the goal as being similar to when a smell brings up a memory, but since you can't smell anything with the current hardware, music has to take that place. He described this goal as "when music and memory interact." More concretely, he demonstrated the use of recurring themes when bosses in God Hand return in their devil forms. The music would use the same phrase and tone, but be arranged differently, to create this interaction of music and memory.

With Killer 7, a big part of Takada's goal became to express the "unique looks" of the game. He had initial issues creating just the right sound, but eventually he tried something new for him (with a new problem).

Takada: I translated the screen into music... scenario, characters, and the game's development. But this method concerned me, because of the integrity of the music. I created a sound based on my instinct, and I was afraid the finished sound might not have consistency. Embracing chaotic music might be the one way to go, but if my music and I are driven by that, my music will not be consistent.

To solve that problem, Takada integrated certain consistent sound effects throughout Killer 7; he illustrated the phenomenal matching of sound and visuals by playing a clip of the game which proved his point. There might be something to be drawn from the very different approaches to these discussions about audio from a successful Western and Eastern developer, but regardless, we hope you enjoyed this insight into the creative process behind what you hear when you play.